For making the cherry blossom samples, I have used in total 7 techniques to replicate the cherry blossom flowers
- Resin casting
- Thermochromic painting
- Smocking
- Paper crepe folding
- Hot glue molding
- EVA foam shaping
- Plastic fusing
I. Resin casting
More details of resin casting process for the flower petals can be found here:
Fig.1, 2, 3, 4: Process of resin casting to make the cherry blossom petals – weighting, stirring and adding pigment, dropping and curing.
Fig.5, 6, 7: Cherry blossom resin petals and final result
II. Thermochromic painting:
I realised that red hue thermochromic paint is a really pretty colour which suits cherry blossom really well, thus I want to utilise its ‘invisible and disappearing’ properties to recreate the characteristic of cherry blossom flower – beautiful but fragile and ephemeral.
Fig. 8, 9, 10: Painting of cherry blossom flower using thermochromic paint: 1st layer – 2nd layer – crimson paint dot and flower disappearing because of heat to represent the blooming and withering flower.
III. Smocking
I used a variety of pink and red colour felt for this technique, I cut out small little circle with diameter around 5cm, then I did a simple stitch around the circle edge, gathered them together at the center. I use the left over thread to create creases and it formed the 5 petals.
Fig. 11, 12, 13: Smocking process: Circle cutting, gathering and creasing, final sample
IV. Paper crepe folding
I also realised that the one material that closely resembles cherry blossom flower and petals is paper crepe which is commonly used to make pompom flower. I simply squished and twisted the paper to create further imprints and then cut out petals
Fig. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 ,19: Paper crepe petal process: stretching the paper, twisting to shape, release, folding and cutting, assembling petal and final sample
V. Hot glue molding
I happened to have this flower petal making mold because I was doing some baroque/roccocco decoration in the past. They are silicone mold for cake decoration, mainly used for fondue and hot chocolate shaping. My theory was: if it works for hot chololate, then hot glue should not be a problem. It was fairly simple to use: Squeeze the glue into the mold, apply firm pressure evenly and the form is done after the glue cools down (1 minute). Then with a bit of trimming and painting, the flower was done.
Fig. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24: Hot glue mold process: squeezing glue into the mold, applying even pressure, let the glue cool down, trimming, final painting and assemly
VI. EVA foam shaping
I have always been working with EVA foam because of its great characteristic: durability, versatility, heat manipulation reaction and surface smoothness when heat is applied. I used pink EVA foam and cut out petal shape. Usually I’d use heat gun to apply heat, but the petal was too small so I did not want to risk burning my finger while heating (also because I was lazy to set it up), thus I used my iron and high heat. I sandwiched the petal piece between wax paper, ran the iron on top and slowly pulling it away to start forming the shape. I used my thumb and index finger to create the bump and pinching.
Fig. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30: EVA foam shaping process: cutting, trimming, ironing, shaping and assembly
VII. Plastic fusing
I used pink plastic bag and cut it into some parts for trial and errors. I layered them with the plain pink side facing outside. I sandwiched it between wax paper and applied the iron. The plastic fuses almost immediately so my first batch with 2 layers were more or less burnt with holes. The 2nd batch was 4 layers, worked well with no burning, but it was too thick and stiff, and it was too smooth. The last batch using 2 layers worked best because I was careful with timing, and then I just need to cut the shape of petals out.
Fig. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36: Plastic fusing process – Ironing and cutting
As the final application of the samples, I photoshopped the sample into scarf templates that I found online to represent the rendering of the scarf if the samples were used (All with the exception of resin petals because I used that for the final scarf)
Fig. 37: Sample rendering onto scarf